


As the Feathers Drift Along the Winds of War

by ertrunkener_Wassergeist



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Asymmetric Warfare, Canonical Character Death, Cultural Differences, Galahd (Final Fantasy XV), Galahdian Culture (Final Fantasy XV), Galahdian Religion (Final Fantasy XV), Galahkari are badass people, Gen, Injury, Languages and Linguistics, Longest One Shot I ever wrote, Niflheim's warmongering, One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, War, Worldbuilding, headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:40:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23121136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ertrunkener_Wassergeist/pseuds/ertrunkener_Wassergeist
Summary: Galahd wasn't exactly winning against Niflheim's invasion force, but they were holding their own. Then Regis Lucis Caelum of all people is seighted on one of the islands and one thing happens after the other.In the end Nyx owes the Lucian King the strongest debt a Galahkar can owe another person, and the first rallying cry to join the Kingsglaive is uttered in Galahd's jungles.
Relationships: Crowe Altius & Libertus Ostium & Nyx Ulric, Nyx Ulric & Selena Ulric
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	As the Feathers Drift Along the Winds of War

**Author's Note:**

> For the amazing priestess-accursed-heir who prompted me into writing this. It may have grown a tad out of control and to the left. Hope you like it! :)
> 
> Words in Hadnissa:
> 
> forisahr hiowül = wooden iron, ironwood  
> ohwul dehlutristi = forged wood  
> namakar = huntress; lit.: she-hunter  
> oirkar = chief, clan head; lit.: leading person; a title  
> ahtri = spirit; umbrella term for everything from actual nature spirits to the presence of their ancestors  
> kohna = swearword; along the lines of shit  
> Ukrih akastral bolirne ohlro. = May a demon take you.  
> Galadi lin Puhnak = name of the Galahdian resistance; lit.: Feathers of a Bird  
> sineähr = Elder; title for people over 70  
> Zwihr = village in Galahd  
> Ahgris Chain = a mountain chain in Galahd  
> Uhlari = village in Galahd  
> lumo varistos = thank you; formal  
> ohlro ar fahl Eohsas = a formal greeting; lit.: Eos' light be on you.  
> rid ohlro ar = answer to a formal greeting; lit.: and on you  
> fohrnfilkar = polite address to an unknown Galahkar  
> schiwel = clan  
> limeschti = traditional welcoming tea  
> astralnoheliokar = insult; lit.: helper of an Astral, mostly geared towards the Lucis Caelums and the Fleurets  
> makti-oir = war chief, commander-in-chief, warlord; lit.: leading hunter  
> gisdrahut = storyteller  
> varisgefalni = set phrase after a meal  
> Bareh = fishing village in Galahd  
> mahir = mother; affectionate form, lit.: woman who birthed me  
> macri = mother; affectionate term, adoptive mother, lit.: heartmother

_ Emerald Twilight _

The air was humid and sticky, it nearly felt like breathing water. Accompanied by the smell of damp earth, rotting leaves and blooming flowers the small breeze did little else but rustle the leaves of the giant trees. With next to no sound Nyx crept quietly along a thick branch, nothing more than a fleeting shadow in the emerald twilight of the jungle, and peered down.

Unsurprisingly, there was nothing to be seen but the plants, earth and a few animal tracks. The signal hadn't been given yet, but Nyx couldn't help himself and had to check every few minutes if their prey was close yet. From the annoyed looks the leader of their hunting group, Ladone Najad, threw his way, he better stop that. Her eyes were flint stone hard and her darker skin blended perfectly into the shadows surrounding them. He couldn't stop himself from taking one last look however, to see if he could spot Libertus anywhere. He couldn't, which was to be expected.

His hunting-brother was part of the ground attack force since his climbing skills weren't all that great, but he could make himself as invisible as a snake hiding in tall grass and lie in wait for hours barely moving.

Pulling back from his perch, he checked if his spear was still leaning against the tree trunk. It was long and heavy, made out of the hardest wood they could find on Galahd. It was from the northern island, in the mountains there. The mountain Clans called it forisahr hiowül while nearly everybody else knew it as ohwul dehlutristi. It was of a near black colour and once one managed to whittle one end into a point, it was sharp and sturdy enough to not need anything else. This one was of Furia make, its sharpened tip fashioned to imitate the typical blade of a spear with wickedly sharp hooks.

A cry came from further down the dirt path most of the hunting group were perched above. It sounded like the sweet sound of a floral bird and ended in their very distinct high pitched trill before suddenly dipping down in pitch. The signal.

From one moment to the next Nyx' senses seemed to narrow down towards the spot where he knew the enemy supply troop would come from. He gripped his spear and ducked lower into the foliage. If someone were to look up they wouldn't see hide nor hair of him. Not that the Niffs ever looked up.

Blood pumped through his veins at an ever increasing rate as adrenalin shot through him in anticipation. He looked up and caught the eyes of Crowe who crouched on the tree across from his. He shot her a wide grin and she rolled her eyes with a silent scoff. Satisfied he turned his attention back towards the path below. His storm-sister would be alright.

Another sweet bird song sounded and then he heard them. They didn't even try to be quiet, stomping through the jungle like they owned the place. Nyx snarled at the thought. The jungle belonged to no one. Heavy stomping steps crunched wood beneath them as the MA Veles swayed into view. Behind it, Nyx knew, even if he couldn't see them right now, would be the contingent of human soldiers and behind them the MT guarding the supplies.

Nyx kept his eyes on his target. Any moment now Libertus and the others on the ground would – fast as a snake, a jungle vine shot up until it hovered horizontally over the ground like a tripping wire. The Veles couldn't react fast enough and tripped right over it. Nyx couldn't hear the other traps activating over the metallic whirring of the falling Veles, but he could see the two spears shooting out of the foliage and piercing the things armour.

With a loud roar he flung himself off his tree branch, angling his fall just right so that his spear would pierce the energy core of that huge waste of metal. He nearly slipped as the armour slumped to the ground and stopped moving, its lights stuttering out.

Gunfire cracked through the air. Fast as a coeurl Nyx dove behind the Veles for cover and fingered the gun strapped at his hip, just above one of his hunting knives. It was a trophy taken from the first officer he had killed. With a few fast movements he loaded the weapon, deactivated the safety and started firing. He wasn't the best marksman around, not by a long shot – pun totally intended – but decent enough to not hit his comrades on accident.

He shot a human soldier in the torso, which wouldn't kill him now, but definitely put him out of commission, and a MT in the shoulder. Its upper body rotated unnaturally wide to the right and left an opening for Libertus who lobbed its head right off with one of his small battle axes. Nyx grinned and fired until there were no bullets left. Holstering the gun, he unsheathed the two longest knives he carried. They were nearly long enough to be called short swords. Hesitating for but a second, he jumped into the fray.

There weren't many enemies still left standing. Nyx easily dispatched a MT stumbling over a gnarled tree root only to cry out in sudden pain as a stream of fire caught his arm. He blindly stumbled backwards until his back hit the rough bark of a tree, one of his kukri fell to the ground as he hastened to put out the fire consuming his left sleeve. The stink of burning cloth, leather and skin made him gag.

A pair of large hands rubbed something damp into on his arm. Nyx blinked up and saw Libertus hovering next to him with a concerned expression on his face. Nyx tried to grin reassuringly at his hunting-brother but it felt more like a pained grimace.

“You alright?” asked Libertus and dropped his hands. Clumps of dark earth fell to the ground.

Nyx winced in pain as he twisted his arm to try and see how big the damage was. “Fuck, this hurts. I'll live, big guy. At least long enough until Selena gets her hands on me.”

Libertus barked a laugh. “The only reason your sister let you go this time was because you were supposed to be part of our suppressive fire. It's your own damn fault this happened,” he grouched and motioned towards Nyx' injured arm.

“It's not my fault I ran out of bullets,” he grumbled with no real heat behind it.

“Hey Libs! Move your ass over here and help us redistributing the supplies!” called Crowe from next to a toppled crate that was nearly as tall as she was.

“Yeah, yeah. I'm coming!” he yelled back and after one last look to make sure Nyx wouldn't keel over the next second, marched over towards her muttering something about impatient little sisters.

Nyx couldn't help the grin forming on his face at the scene. It morphed into a pained grimace as he bent down to pick up his fallen blade. The movement made his head spin uncomfortably. He straightened back up, both blades back in their sheaths and looked for Ladone. Her son-in-law was a Patientia, so she was most likely to carry something with her that would at least help with the pain.

He found her arguing with Radis Arra, a gekkan of a man with wild black hair and a thick beard. It was nearly comical how much taller he was than her.

“- don't see why we can't just...,” sounded the deep bass voice of the man as Nyx made his way over.

“Namakar Najad,” he spoke up with far more politeness in his tone, than he usually would.

“Oirkar Ulric,” she acknowledged with a slight dip of her head. She frowned when she saw his arm. “You better get that looked at.”

From her look alone Nyx could tell that she knew he hadn't remained behind cover and would have words with him later. He very carefully didn't look down in an admission of guilt and nodded. Ladone sighed and dug through the pouch at her hip. It was made out of sturdy leather, adorned with colourful embroidery in the form of dancing fishes made out of simple never ending knots. She pulled out a small vial made out of clay and handed it to him.

“Drink that,” she commanded. “It'll take the edge off until we get back.”

Nyx nodded his thanks and gulped down the bitter concoction within. The taste was as bad as the smell and reminded him of the fertilizer the farmers used. It trickled down his throat in a cool wave that quickly found its way down his arm, ebbing the pulsing pain until he could bend his arm without getting dizzy.

“If I have help with the harness, I can still pull one of the supply carts,” he offered.

There were two glaring problems with their new cargo: One, the crates the Niffs used were too heavy to move efficiently, and two, they wouldn't fit into the tunnels anyway. So they had their own carts waiting in the nearby tunnel to transport everything to the nearest hideout and distribute it from there.

Ladone looked him over in consideration and then shook her head. “No. You go ahead with the other wounded that can still walk on their own.”

Nyx hid his disappointment as best as he could, but he didn't think he quite managed. Ladone turned back to Radis as the man huffed.

“And we're down another pair of hands. Damn it, Ladone. At this rate it'll take us well into the night to redistribute everything on the carts and I don't want to be caught out here by either Niffs or daemons,” the man growled.

Ladone looked him straight into the eyes. The intimidation factor wasn't diminished in the slightest by the fact she had to look up. “A job well done takes its time, Radis. You of all people should know that,” she practically spat at him and stalked away.

The man looked ready to spew lightning, so Nyx thought it best to follow her lead and leave him well enough alone with his fury. Nyx knew the story she was referring to, had heard it from one of Radis’ Clan members, in fact.

Axis Arra was three years younger than Nyx and had stumbled into his and Libertus' bar that served as a waypoint for the resistance fighters, a few weeks ago. Apparently Radis had been in charge of a counter attack on a newly established Niff base, near the village a large part of the Arra Clan lived in. The man's father had been an Ostium, which was where he had inherited his built from, and also why people had trusted him with this task. Sadly, who his father was didn't translate well into tactics and fighting ability. He had been too impatient and as a result the village had been lost, razed to the ground along with a part of the surrounding jungle.

“Nyx, you gonna help or stand there looking pretty?” Crowe asked as he walked by where she and Libertus were working on emptying one of the big crates that had fallen from the transportation vehicle during the fight. It contained spare electrical parts that they could repurpose for their own needs.

He wondered how that thing had even made it this far into the jungle. The wheels were caked in mud and earth and around two of them he could see hacked off remnants of a climbing plant. It was one of the variants that had parts hanging off of high places and this one must have been a really impressive specimen to have reached the ground.

“I'm afraid I'll have to resort to looking pretty,” he answered with a crooked grin and motioned to his burnt arm.

Crowe frowned in worry as she stepped closer. “You should get that looked at,” she echoed Ladone's earlier statement.

“Yeah, you're not the first one telling me that. One of those ahtrii damned flamethrowers nearly burnt my arm off,” he grimaced.

His storm-sister's hands flittered over the arm without touching it as she leaned closer. “Well, it doesn't look that bad. The leather is definitely ruined though.”

“I can probably repair it,” he said and tried again to get a better look at his upper arm and elbow. All that did however was make the pain worse again. “Ladone told me to head back with the other injured to tell the people we were successful.”

“Then why are you still here? Shoo. Selena will surely be willing to part with some of her burn salve,” Crowe grinned and made an exaggerated shooing motion in the direction the nearest entrance to the tunnels lay.

“I'm going, I'm going. Damn it, woman, I'm starting to think you don't like me,” Nyx said with a playful grin.

He stepped out of the way of her half hearted slap and walked off the path between two huge trees whose roots wound around each other like an intimate embrace. Libertus’ guffaws were quickly swallowed by the jungle around him.

_ Stony Shadows _

The tunnel entrance was located within a rock formation and covered by a curtain of bright green leaves and discreet violet flowers. It was a fast growing plant that loved high, rocky places and grew downwards instead of up, which was why it had been chosen to cover the entrance.

In front of it three people already waited. One with a small cut on his forehead and one hand falling uselessly at his side, another was clutching her ribs and the last didn't have any obvious signs of injury, but her glassy eyed stare indicated a concussion. Of the three he only knew Sonitus Bellum, who had the broken hand, the others had joined their group not even a week ago and he hadn't had the chance yet to learn their names.

Sonitus was a year younger than Nyx, with his hair mostly shaved off, except three stripes on top of his head where his Clan braids were tightly braided against his scalp. His naked arms were packed with large muscles and his wide chest was covered with a leather breastplate.

Nyx greeted them wordlessly and asked: “Are we everybody?”

“Anybody else will simply have to follow us,” ground the woman with the probably broken rib out between clenched teeth.

Sonitus scoffed in clear displeasure but didn't say anything. It was clear by the drawn tight twist to his mouth that he, too, just wanted to get back to get his hand treated.

“We're the only ones,” said the concussed woman after a few seconds. “Kepho's the only one who can't walk.”

They entered the tunnel, Nyx last behind Sonitus and the two women at the front. The tunnel was one of the smaller ones dedicated for fast travel and was just wide enough for the group to walk in single file. It was cooler down here and smelled even stronger of damp earth. Nyx could hear insects scuttle along the walls.

He kept his arm as still as possible as they walked in silence, but the pain flared regularly every few minutes.

“Hey Sonitus, you think those Niffs were nice enough to have packed some noodles in their supplies? I'm really craving noodles right now,” he asked out of sheer need to say something in this underground silence, as they passed the second of three junctions on their way to the mining tunnels.

For a second Sonitus looked back at him over his shoulder, and even in the light of the torch Nyx could see that the younger was looking at him like he had grown a second head. They both knew that the rations the Niffs got were anything but noodles.

There was mostly hard baked bread and cured meats, and sometimes some kind of weird tasting milk and dried berries that were very sweet. Nyx truly could not say if this meagre variety was a sign of the Niffs struggling or that they had managed to live off of the Galahdian wildlife to a certain extend. He knew which possibility he liked better. The other didn't bare much thinking about because Niffs were honestly kind of stupid.

“If you want noodles so much you live in the wrong country,” said Sonitus in a not-quite-but-kind-of insult and turned back around fully.

Nyx heaved a soundless sigh. He didn't really want noodles. Pitioss, he didn't even like them all that much. Noddles were weird and soggy and flopped all over the place and Galahd had only learned of their existence when one of the rare trading ships from Lucis had brought them over.

“Damn shark wrangler,” he muttered just loud enough with a smile colouring his voice.

Sonitrus snorted. It wasn’t a true insult, there were stories of Bellums herding sharks for some reason or other, but it was good enough in Nyx' book. People said it was bad luck to not see a shark on the maiden voyage of a Bellum built ship. Not that Nyx would know, since the only ships he had ever been on were the vessels used to travel between the islands.

Around them the earth gradually turned into stone until they spilled out of the small tunnel into a bigger one. This one had supports made of metal and wood at regular intervals and rails along the ground. A string of electric light bulbs hung from the ceiling. Only one in every five was working, but it was enough light to see by without the torches and keep the daemons out. They had reached the mines; it would only take a few more minutes now to reach the camp. Nyx couldn't help but heave a quiet sigh of relief. He wasn't claustrophobic by any means but those tunnels, as useful as they were, were a special kind of suffocating. Ulrics weren't made to be underground.

They turned left and followed the rails until the tunnel opened into some kind of resting place the miners had used when these particular tunnels had still been active. Four other tunnels branched off from here. The concussed woman walked straight towards the second tunnel to their right and the other woman had to drag her back with a harsh whisper. Nyx shared a look with Sonitus as they walked past the two down another tunnel.

After just a few more minutes they could hear the low murmur of the camp echoing through the tunnel and without conscious thought their steps hastened. The jungle was their home, but it was a harsh place and not friendly for the injured.

Behind the next bend the tunnel opened towards a large, cave like room. Sharp spears of sunlight pierced down from the ventilation holes in the ceiling, and gave a stark contrast to the flickering shadows the fires cast along the walls. Most of the people were sitting around the community fire on improvised benches and crates, talking amongst themselves. A smaller group worked around the cooking fire from where the truly mouthwatering smell of grilled meat and curry gently wafted over. Somewhere in the background a record player added fast paced drum music to the atmosphere.

“They're back!” someone yelled before either one of the four in the group could say anything to announce themselves.

At once everybody within the cave was on their feet and crowded around the small group.

“How did it go?”

“My sister? Was she injured?”

“I knew you wouldn't take that long!”

“Did that ahtrii damned Arra man give you any trouble?”

“Everybody calm down!” Sonitus bellowed in such a loud voice it made Nyx and a few others flinch. Silence descended upon them. “Namakar Najad sent us four back to tell you that the attack was successful. Right now the others are preparing our new supplies for transport which will take some more time.”

As soon as Sonitus closed his mouth people were cheering again and talking amongst each other animatedly.

“Hey! Let me through, let me through. Excuse me, get out of my way. Nyx!”

With a bright smile and copious usage of her elbows Selena Utris made her way through the small crowd around them. She hugged him tightly enough to press all air out of his lungs and he winced as she came into contact with his burnt arm.

“You're hurt!” Selena exclaimed before her eyes turned into suspicious slits. “Why are you hurt?”

Nervously Nyx shifted his weight from one leg to the other and tried not to look too guilty. “Well, you see...”

“You can tell me later, idiot brother. This looks like a burn. Come, I still have enough of the paste Philotes gave me after the accident. Afterwards you can tell me why you thought actively fighting when your broken leg just healed was a good idea.”

Kohna.

Without further ado Nyx let himself be herded towards the part of the large, cave like room serving as the med bay. Selena practically sat him down on a cot and proceeded to help him out of his leather armour. It was a lamellar armour made of leather and garula bones, the lamellae tied together with a sturdy rope made of plant fibre.

His sister helped him untie the shoulder guards and then took off the whole armour as carefully as she could. Still, he had to bite his tongue more than once to not cry out in pain. The left shoulder guard was ruined and would need a complete replacement.

Selena hissed in sympathy when she saw the whole injury. She had started working in their mother's smithy not too long ago, had helped out countless times before that, and had had her fair share of burns.

“You're lucky. It's not as bad as it could be, no charred skin or even big blisters. It reaches your elbow, though. Did somebody give you something for the pain?”

“Yeah,” pressed Nyx out between clenched teeth as his sister started to clean the wound with lukewarm water and a soft cloth that felt like sandpaper rubbing over his skin. “Ladone gave me something.”

His sister as she continued her task of cleaning the reddened skin from the earth Libertus had used to keep the leather of his armour from smouldering. Setting the water and the cloth aside after a few minutes of cleaning and rinsing to help keep the swelling down, she picked up another cloth and a medicine bottle. The liquid it contained had a sharp odour that burnt in his nose. Without really realizing it Nyx pulled a face at the smell.

“Don't be such a baby, brother,” Selena chastised and pressed the drenched cloth against the length of the burn.

“Kohna! Ukrih akastral bolirne ohlro,” Nyx cursed, the words tumbling along his tongue without thought.

Instinctively he flinched away from the first second of burning pain the stuff caused, before it abated within a few heartbeats and turned into a pleasantly cool numbness. Damn, that had hurt like a bitch.

“Nyx! If mother could hear you she would tan your hide,” Selena scolded in a scandalized tone but the mischief twinkling in her eyes and the impish curl to her lips gave her away.

He decided to do the mature thing and stuck his tongue out.

“Very mature,” she giggled and Nyx grinned, satisfied.

Selena shot him an unimpressed look and peeled the cloth away from the burn. Thankfully the numbness stayed.

“How does it feel now?” she asked and dug through a drawer for something.

“Numb,” he answered.

“Good. You still shouldn't try to move the arm too much,” she paused for a second in her search. “Why am I even telling you this? You know the drill.”

With a triumphant “aha!” she held up a roll of gauze and a small earthen container, Nyx knew to hold the burn ointment their mother always ordered from the Patientia. Selena bounded back to the cot he sat on, unscrewed the container and at once Nyx had a sharp but pleasantly flowery scent in his nose. The salve was of a mint green colour and had the consistency of a thick jelly as Selena spread a thick and smooth layer of it over his wound. A pleasantly cool and tingly feeling spread where the salve touched wounded skin. With deft fingers his sister wound the gauze around his arm. She nodded, satisfied, as she checked over her handiwork one more time.

“So,” Selena started after a short pause and looked at Nyx in such a way he wished to be back with Libertus and Crowe, carrying their looted goods back and forth, “and now you're going to tell me what the fuck happened.”

“Selena!” Nyx exclaimed in the same tone of voice she had used not too long ago. “If mother could hear you talking like that, she would wash your mouth with soap.”

That comment earned him nothing but one of the unimpressed stares she had picked up from their mother. She was really getting good at those.

Nyx raised his good arm in surrender.

“I really was doing the shooting, you know? Like I promised you I would. Behind cover and everything. I just... ran out of bullets before the fight was over.”

The last sentence sounded more like a question than he had intended to.

“And you couldn't have stayed behind cover until the fighting was over?” she asked, but the look on her face told him she already knew the answer to that question. So he didn't say anything, just shrugged sheepishly.

After a few more moments of silence Selena sighed and stood up. “Stay here. I'm getting you something to eat. I know you missed lunch.”

“Thank you, sister,” he said with a rueful smile as she turned away.

Her smile mirrored his own as she waved his gratitude off and walked towards the cooking fires where a man was stirring a large pot.

Nyx groaned and carded his uninjured hand through his hair as he sat there half naked. He knew Selena worried about him, maybe even more so than their mother. Apparently Nyx was too much like his father for his own good, as his mother would tell him with a resigned smile, after yet another stunt he hadn't really meant to pull but did anyway. Not that this had stopped the world from throwing shit at him.

Something soft and heavy hit him in the chest. With a surprised gasp he would deny ever making, he looked down and saw a folded up blanket. Looking up to see who did it, he came face to face with Philotes Altius who stood by the cot across from his. The concussed woman lay on it and on the one next to that sat the other woman with now bandaged ribs.

“So you don't look so pathetic, Ulric,” Philotes grouched and turned back to checking over the concussed woman.

Nyx just snorted but wound the blanket around him anyway. It was soft and fluffy and airy enough not to be stifling. He wondered where Sonitus had walked off to.

Selena came back with a steaming bowl of fish stew and a piece of flatbread made out of ground nuts, accompanied by a cup of fumir. The tantalizing smell hit Nyx full force and the sudden rumble of his stomach made him realize how hungry he really was. He hadn't really noticed it with the anticipation before the raid and his injury afterwards. Thankfully, before they had set out, Ladone had practically crammed an energy bar down his throat, and he hadn't been the only one she had done that to either.

He fell over his meal like a ravenous coeurl over its kill.

“Mother will come tomorrow to look over the captured goods and see what she can use or repurpose,” Selena spoke up when Nyx was halfway through the delicious stew.

He swallowed the clump of seaweed he had been chewing on and said: “Really? I thought she was too busy repairing weapons and stuff to do it.”

“Of course she's coming,” Selena said indignantly. “You haven't seen each other in ages. You really think she would let this opportunity pass?”

“To be honest, I thought that's why you are here,” Nyx muttered around his spoon.

“You're impossible, Nyx. Maybe you should make the time and visit her sometime soon. She would be really happy about it, you know?”

“It's not that I don't want to, I just have so much to do,” he shot back and it was only half a lie.

Between his work for the Galadi lin Puhnak and the bar he had opened with Libertus a year ago, his schedule was pretty much full.

“If you really wanted to, you could make time, and don't you dare tell me otherwise, Nyx Ulric,” his sister practically threw in his face before she deflated with a sigh. “I know it's difficult with Clarice, but please try. For me and mother. Next year that old hag will have to give up her position as oirkar. Things will be easier then, you'll see.”

Nyx could do nothing but nod, even if he didn't really believe it.

Clarice Utris was the oirkar of the Utris Clan and a bitter old woman that held a deep disdain for everything having to do with Ulrics. When their mother and started to court their father she had been vehemently against it, and even gone as far as cancelling nearly all support Alyxa Utris was due, when she had married Ilias Ulric. The Clan had started to get closer again when Ilias had died, but animosities had flared up again when Nyx had gone on his First Hunt without telling anyone and earned himself the Ulric name.

Both Nyx and Selena hated the situation their mother was in because of one woman with an unexplainable grudge, and they both dealt with it in different ways. Selena with helping their mother where she could, even going so far and abandoning her dream of carrying the name Ulric, and Nyx with distancing himself no matter how much it hurt him to do so.

That's why he had moved into the main Ulric Clan house when he had turned 16. He had seen how much his mother had suffered from the distance of her Clan, the lack of help during difficult times, so he kept his distance, hoping against hope that it would soften Clarice's heart.

*

Laughter reverberated through the mine. Nyx sat on a crate right next to Libertus while Crowe, his storm-sister, sat on the ground, her head leaned against Libertus' thigh. Selena had dragged another crate close enough that the siblings sat next to each other, their arms pressed against each other's. The hunting group had come back late into the night, but that hadn't stopped anyone from gathering around the fire and celebrate.

Shadows and light flickered in an ever twisting dance over the rough walls and the air was heavy with the smell of people, alcohol, food and old stone. In the middle of the crowd one of the people present at the attack stepped back from the fire and another took his place. They all had a competition going on of who could tell the most exaggerated story of the raid. The goal was to make yourself look as good as possible.

Even the ever straight faced Ladone had told a tale of how she had swum through the air like a fish and that this was the reason she was as fast as she was, along with exaggerated gestures. Nyx had narrated how he had called down a rod of lightning to defeat the Magitek Armour and had wrestled barehanded with an MT that had had a flamethrower hidden in its arm. Libertus had called false on that one and so it had been his turn. Crowe herself had flown through the air like her namesake and scratched what counted as a MT's heart out of their shells.

Luckily there were no gisdrauhti here at the moment. They did not exactly disapprove of these kind of stories, but had their ways to make their displeasure known. Over large number of generations it had become a game of hide and seek. After these kinds of hunts the people would try to tell their stories where the gisdrauhti couldn't find them and, should they be found, the gisdrauhti would call false on the stories and tell one of their own. A true one, and the most cumbersome and boring one they could think of.

The last participant stepped back into the crowd followed by loud laughter and calls of falsehood.

Next to Nyx Selena was clapping and laughing with lively eyes. Nyx felt his smile soften. It was good his little sister was having fun, he just wished Niflheim had no part in it.

The people hushed as a young man stepped close to the fire, his face set into a thunderous frown. He had the red hair of a Furia but Nyx didn't know his name. He must have come not too long ago. A teenager with the same red hair and facial features stood at the edge of the crowd. That was Tredd Furia, scowling like he had eaten something spoiled. Nyx wondered what they were doing here. Furias normally kept mostly to the western island and didn't wander around much. With a sudden worry gripping his heart, he hoped nothing bad had happened.

Next to him Selena gripped his hand, his worry reflected on her face. On his other side Libertus shifted his weight restlessly and Crowe sat up straight. Nyx couldn't see his storm-sister's face, but he could see the tension in the line of her shoulders and spine.

“My name is Iapetos of Clan Furia and I am here with my younger brother Tredd of Clan Furia to bring you news from the west.” He paused for a moment and if possible the atmosphere grew even more tense. “We did not want to interrupt your merriment, you all have most certainly earned it, but these news cannot wait any longer.”

“Tell us already ya posh shit,” called a man from the back of the crowd, his accent that of the mountain Clans.

“I was getting to that, you imbecile,” Iapetos spat before he composed himself again and cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed that his temper had gotten the better of him for a second. “I will make this short then: Regis Lucis Caelum has been seen arriving on our island.”

For a few seconds no one made a sound, too astonished by these news. Then Nyx' ears started to ring as people made their displeasure known. Loudly. Libertus started cursing like a Najad or a Khara, which was a very impressive feat indeed. Crowe looked like she was torn between hitting Libertus for his foul language and committing treason against the Lucians.

Before he really knew what he was doing, Nyx had stood up and stepped up to the fire. A growl rumbled through his chest and throat and the echoes in the mines carried it above the incensed cries of the people around him. Suddenly it was very quiet again, all eyes on him, and it took him a few seconds longer to realize that the growl vibrating between the stone walls was originating from him.

Nyx closed his eyes and took a deep breath. What was he even doing? He, a barely 20 year old, oirkar of a Clan that held all of one person. For years now he had avoided situations like this. What weight did he have in the community other than his name?

His skin prickled and he swallowed as he forced himself not to retreat back to his family. If he did that, he would lose face and all respect he had earned from the people here.

“Why would he come? No Lucis Caelum has stepped foot on our shores since the days of the Conqueror King.”

Iapetos shifted his weight, a thin sheen of sweat was visible on his forehead.

“Neither I nor my brother saw him, Orikar Ulric. It was one of the Lazarus that did when he was out scouting. He didn't make contact, instead he reported back to the oirkari and the sinehäri. It was decided that between the Lucis Caelum and the Nifasi, the Nifasi are the bigger threat. When we left members of the Lazarus Clan were still shadowing the mainlanders.”

“There's more than the Lucis Caelum?” Nyx asked, his voice sharp.

“Yes. Three more.” Iapetos' eyes flitted towards Libertus for the fraction of a second. “One is an Amicitia, one is dressed like a member of the Crownsguard and the third one we do not know. However we think him some kind of caretaker.”

“And did the Lazaruses find out what the mainlanders want?” In Nyx' opinion it couldn't be a coincidence that a Lucis Caelum of all people would dare to come to Galahd while the Niffs were trying to conquer the island nation. There had to be a correlation and he wanted to know what it was.

“They seem to be here in search of something, or rather somebody. They were heard talking about a rumour on the mainland. Apparently they think Glauca to be here.”

Nyx frowned. He had never heard of this Glauca before. Had the Lucis Caelums a feud against him? That was still no excuse to come to Galahd unannounced. They would gain no help from the Galahkari that way, not when the name Lucis Caelum already had no good standing with his people.

“What makes them think Glauca is here?” asked Ladone as she stepped out of the crowd.

“They would not say,” answered Iapetos with a shake of his head. “They are convinced he is here and that is enough for them.”

Ladone gave a disparaging  _ tsk _ as she stood there, arms on her hips and Nyx could not help but agree. The mainlanders were risking death not only by the Niffs or the jungle, but also by the Galahkari themselves. Until something else was said an action against a Lucis Caelum on Galahd was considered self-defence, no matter the circumstances. Thus had been the law since the Conqueror King.

“Have they found Zwihr yet? Or any of the outposts?” demanded Ladone.

That woman could hold generational grudges like the best of them. Nonetheless Nyx had to wonder why it was so bad with her.

Iapetos tilted his head in thought. “They found an old hunting outpost at the foot of Ahgris Chain. The last Lazarus I spoke to before leaving, Luche Lazarus, reported they were using it as their base of operations. We ask for a place to sleep for the night before we move on to Uhlari to contact the sinehär gisdrauhti tomorrow morning.”

Nyx caught Ladone's eyes. She looked at him, a question clear in her eyes and he tilted his head in a tiny nod. He had no idea why she deferred towards him in this moment, but he saw no harm to give two Galahkari from the western island a place to sleep for the night.

“Both you, Iapetos of Clan Furia, and your brother Tredd of Clan Furia are welcome to stay the night. May our fire warm your bones and guide your dreams. May it grant you protection from the poisoned shadows writhing in the night.” Ladone waved towards someone in the crowd and Philotes Altius stepped forward. Her ebony coloured hair gleamed beautifully in the fire light. “This is Philotes of Clan Altius. She will show you to your accommodations for the night.”

Iapetos raised a hand to his collarbone in a silent greeting, palm open and parallel to the ground, and nodded towards her. Philotes copied him with a smile that said she liked what she saw and Nyx had to bite down a scoff. He may have more or less made up with her – a necessity of their current situation – but that didn't mean he quit thinking her a flighty idiot.

The young man turned towards him.

“Lumo varistos,” he said very respectfully and crossed his wrists. Nyx nearly choked on his own spit and mutterings broke out in the surrounding crowd that had been mostly silent until then. Iapetos continued as if he didn't notice. “Ohlro ar fahl Eohsas, Oirkar Ulric.”

“Rid ohlro ar, fohrnfilkar Furia Schiwelk,” Nyx managed to say in return with a nod.

This was not how he thought his evening would go. Not at all.

A grin curled at the man's lips and an impish gleam entered his golden brown eyes. “Lumo gisdrauht,” he threw out there with a small wink, like it was no big deal at all.

Someone cursed in the resulting silence. Iapetos threw his head back and laughed from deep within his chest. It was a rich and warm sound, like golden honey. And with it the strange mood had been broken. People started discussing what they had heard and Nyx saw Tredd shove his brother playfully with a big grin of his own as they turned to follow Philotes.

People stepped out of his way as he walked back to where his sister, Libertus and Crowe were sitting. His storm-sister tore her gaze away from where both Furias had disappeared into the crowd to look at him.

“Couldn't he have waited with the bad news until morning?” she complained in that kind of way she did when she didn't really mean it.

Libertus looked at her with raised eyebrows and a grin. “You've got the hots for the guy, admit it.”

She elbowed him into the closest place she could reach in her position on the ground, which was the shin.

“Damn it, Crowe!”

“Your own fault,” she snorted with a blush creeping into her cheeks, utterly unrepentant. “I don't have the hots for him.”

“You do,” giggled Selena, which turned into a full blown laugh when Crowe tried to slap her ankle and couldn't quite reach.

“I could totally introduce you two, if you want to talk,” Nyx said with a wide grin. “You would be way better company than Philotes.”

Crowe's face grew even redder.

“Yeah. Why did Ladone have to make her of all people the welcoming committee? She'll serve them her Clan's limeschti, just you see,” grumbled Libertus.

Selena gasped appropriately scandalized at the imagined social faux pas and Libertus nodded sagely.

“Stop it,” growled Crowe with no real heat behind it. “If I wanted to, I could talk to him myself. Which I don't. Because I don't have the hots for him.”

“I could hear you swoon over him, when he first stepped out of the crowd,” teased Nyx.

Crowe's face was now as red as Furia's hair. Suddenly a devious grin stole itself onto her face. “Maybe I could tell him about the time you got so drunk Libs' cousin kicked you where the sun doesn't shine, because your flirting was so bad.”

“Don't you dare!” Nyx gasped, and if his arm hadn't been injured this would have ended with them rolling around the floor trying to tickle each other into submission.

Now they just glowered playfully at each other until they decided to call a truce a few heartbeats later.

“So, what now?” asked Selena into the following silence between them.

None of them needed to ask what she meant.

“If that astralnoheliokar dares to make one wrong move towards any of you, I'll steal his eyes and make victory beads out of them,” growled Libertus, his eyes squinted into aggressive slits and his mouth a hard line.

“Shouldn't I be the one making rash decisions?” Nyx tried to joke, but it fell flat.

“Please don't joke about something like this, Nyx,” pleaded Selena and gripped his arm. “You know what happened to Perses Ulric and I don't want the same thing to happen to you.”

Libertus nodded grimly.

“None of us has to do anything. The Lucis Caelum isn't even on this island and no one in the Pontos Clan will ferry him, or any who follow him, over the River Seas. They have no way of getting here,” concluded Crowe in a bid to calm everybody down, since she was the one most emotionally removed from the situation.

Sill Nyx could feel a pit forming in his stomach and he pushed his cup – still half full with fumir – away from him. He didn't feel like drinking anymore.

“But how did he even manage to get to Galahd in the first place?” Selena wanted to know.

“He certainly didn't come directly from the east or my Clan would have noticed,” stated Libertus with absolute certainty.

The Ostiums may mostly be hunters and innkeepers with a penchant of brewing alcohol, but they were also Galahd’s first line of defence should any threat approach from the east. They had been awarded this position when Keren Ostium had carved the Conqueror King’s eye out in retaliation for Perses Ulric’s murder.

“Got any idea what makti-oir Pontos will do with the Lucis Caelum?” Nyx threw out there.

The other three sat in silence as they thought about the question. Crowe gave a one shouldered shrug.

“No clue, never met the guy. But from what I've heard other people say he's the cautious type, so he'll probably sit back and wait. Those mainlanders can't even take a piss without us knowing about it, and I think Pontos will keep it like that until something changes.”

“We don't need to know about their toilet behaviour,” argued Selena with a yawn. Nyx wondered if he should send her off to bed. Their mother would tan his hide, if she knew he let his little sister stay up this late arguing politics and tactics of all things. She was barely 16 after all. “We need to restrict the mainlanders’ movements. What if they stumble upon an entry into the tunnel system? Or discover one of our caches?” she continued, obvious to his train of thought.

“You want to lock them up?” Libertus wondered. “Where would you even put them? Into our towns? The mines? That are – I might add – closely connected to the tunnels.”

“It's quite simple. We don't have the means to lock up a Lucis Caelum. Their magic is pretty much unknown to us and we don't have a prison – or anything really – at the magic blind spots to hold him captive. I suppose we could go to the Wise Witch for help, but Pontos doesn't seem the type to pay the price,” mused Crowe, leaning her weight back onto her hands and staring at the ceiling in contemplation.

“Don't we have any spells that could help?” Nyx wanted to know.

“Like what? Barrier spells? Those only keep daemons out,” Selena cut in.

“Didn't the Lazarus, the Arra and the Aliquantus stick their heads together to experiment with those? I think I heard something about that a few weeks ago when the MTs got all weird around the spells,” commented Libertus.

Crowe nodded. “Yeah. I heard Radis talk to Ladone about capturing an MT to test some stuff, but she's strictly against it.” She sighed wistfully.

Nyx knew how dear magic was to her and how much she loved learning something new about it. He made a mental note to talk to Axis. Maybe he could help get her into the research.

He himself was no good at barriers of any kind. The Ulrics held to the long standing practice of dealing with threads, including daemons, like coeurls did. That was sneak up to it and then eviscerate it with your claws efficiently and quietly. Most of the time an Ostium tended to be close to help with the clean-up or any trouble that might arise. They were dependable like that.

A loud yawn coming from his left pulled him out of his musings.

“All right buhgil, that's enough for today. Off to bed with you. If you're tired enough to fall asleep at breakfast tomorrow, mother will tan both our hides. But especially mine. So shoo.” He gently pushed Selena to her feet.

“But that's not fair,” she complained. “I'm not a kid anymore. And why do you get to stay up longer?”

“Okay, one: I'm older than you, and two: I'm going to bed now, too. Because I'm responsible,” he studiously ignored Libertus' disbelieving snort, “and I don't want mother mad at me.”

“Mother is scary when she's mad,” agreed Selena and let herself be herded away from the community fire.

Behind them Libertus and Crowe sniggered. Nyx carefully did not turn around and stick his tongue out at them. No, he did not. Because he was mature like that.

_ Flickering Shades _

  
  


The following week passed quickly yet slowly at the same time for Nyx. Because of his injury he couldn't really do anything while his sister and mother fussed and he healed under their tender care. Mostly he was stuck doing the paperwork for his and Libertus' bar, taking inventory and collecting information the patrons willingly brought.

It was still plenty to do. Nyx just didn't care much about the networking involved in resistance fighting. He would rather do the fighting, he had told his mother after she had checked the wound yet again at his insistence on the third day.

“Nature won't hurry up just because you want it to,” she had scolded gently as she spread fresh ointment on the burn. “Healing takes time for a reason. The only thing we can do is to take the help nature provides us with. Remember: Nature-”

“Nature provides for those with patience. I know, mahir,” he had grumbled the old adage.

“Then take it to heart and you'll be on the hunt again soon enough.”

And that had been that.

Today his mother and the Altius healer she had dragged him to, who coincidentally was Philotes' mother, had deemed him healed enough to back to hunting, and now he stood in the kitchen of the bar, heating a weak fumir for Axis Arra who had become a big help over the week.

The teenager had done anything from a waiter's job to carrying heavy stuff around when Libertus was busy with the Galadi lin Puhnak. The door to the kitchen opened and Axis stuck his head into the cramped room.

“There's someone here who wants to talk with one of the puhnasi. Says it's important.”

“Did he say what he wants to talk about?” Nyx wanted to know with a slight frown.

Since the Niffs had started to tap their telephones or cut the wires entirely, they had fallen back to the old way of runners to relay messages. Nyx hadn't expected any for today. That someone had still come for the Galadi lin Puhnak made a sliver of dread curl in his stomach.

Axis shook his head and Nyx sighed.

“Alright. I'll throw something quick together for the runner to eat. Shouldn't take more than a minute.”

“Got it,” nodded Axis and closed the door behind him again.

For a few seconds Nyx stared at the pot of steaming fumir before he resolutely shook his head and started to walk to the door that lead to the pantry. Dried meat and some cut fruit would have to do, he supposed. He also found a container with that soft white cheese that crumbled if you tried to cut it. It wasn't very popular here, but Libertus had insisted on getting it anyway.

With a few fast movements he piled some food onto a plate and then stacked that, the pot and three earthen cups on a tray, and walked into the bar proper. The room was large with a floor made out of solid wooden planks and crammed with tables and chairs. Nyx came up from behind the actual bar that nearly spanned the whole width of the room. Shelves upon shelves of colourful tankards, alcohol bottles – mostly Ostium brewed of course – and more glasses than he had ever cared to count, covered every centimetre of the back wall that wasn't the door to the kitchen.

Axis sat on a stool in the corner, where a large barrel served as the table, and next to him was a young man whose blond hair gave him away as a member of the Lazarus Clan.

The blond man gave a tired and thankful nod when the food was set down in front of him. There were no braids in his hair and a tattoo on his forearm marked him as one of the Lazarus that lived part-time in Tenebrae.

“I thank you for the meal,” the Lazarus said with a stiff sort of pomp.

“Nyx, this is Luche of Clan Lazarus, a childhood friend of mine, though I haven't seen him since he decided to join the watchers three years ago. Luche, this is Nyx, Oirkar of Clan Ulric. I've been helping him at the bar since he's been wounded during an ambush on a Niff supply run,” introduced Axis.

The teenager took his cup of fumir eagerly, only for disappointment to flit across his face when he tasted how weak the alcohol was. Nyx hid a grin behind his own cup.

“Well met, and be welcome at my hearth.”

“Well met. I thank you for your welcome,” answered Luche before he dug into his simple meal.

“What made you come all the way here from Tenebrae?” Nyx asked after a few moments of silence where he took a sip of his cup.

Luche chewed slowly and swallowed before answering: “I came to represent the Tenebrani branch of the Lazarus Clan during our Clan meeting. That was a week before the initial attack. Since then no one has been able to leave Galahd in the western direction.”

Nyx nodded thoughtfully. After that first attack many people had wondered rather pointedly why the Lazarus Clan hadn't warned them. To his shame he himself had been amongst those people until his mother had set his head straight. The Lazarus Clan had their eyes on their closest neighbour in the west, which was Tenebrae and not Niflheim. There is only so much ground a single Clan could cover.

“Would you two like to catch up? How important is your message?” Nyx asked.

As if Luche had just been reminded of his actual task, he pushed the last piece of fruit into his mouth and emptied his cup in one gulp.

“Varisgefalni,” the blond said all prim and proper, which was downright impressive considering he had just downed a whole cup of spicy alcohol, no matter how watered down it was. “If it is no trouble, I should be going now.”

“Follow me, I'll lead you to the hideout,” Nyx instructed. “ Axis, one of Libertus' cousins will come over in the afternoon to man the bar while I'm gone. Don't cause her any trouble!”

“Or she'll what?” deadpanned Axis while slouching on his stool.

“Trust me, she knows how to hurt a man,” Nyx muttered just loud enough for the teenager to hear.

Axis's eyes widened comically as he gaped at him. He waved and turned around to walk back into the kitchen, Luche on his heels. The blond's lips twitched in obvious amusement. So the Lazaruses had humour. Nyx had been wondering about that rumour.

They made their way into the pantry and down a trapdoor into the cellar. In a dark corner, behind a stack of barrels full of root beer, was the entrance into the extensive tunnel system the Galahkari used, covered by a stiff sheet of canvas the exact colour of the wall. Luche watched silently as Nyx pushed the canvas back into place in the light of a torch before they both walked deeper into the dark and narrow tunnels.

*

“They are  _ what _ ?” exclaimed Ladone, causing everybody to stare at her.

Luche bore her flint stone hard gaze with an exhausted aplomb Nyx found very unsettling. Damn, that man must have water in his veins.

“I will not repeat myself,” the blond said blandly.

Ladone hissed like a furious cat and Nyx took a cautious step back. He was not the only one to do so. Next to him Libertus gave a quiet curse.

Noticing that the woman in front of him was very close to stringing him up like a dead fish, Luche made a face and said again: “The Lucis Caelum and his mainlanders have made it onto this island sometime during the early hours of the morning.”

“How did they manage that?” Ladone asked dangerously sharp, but calmer now.

Her temper was like a summer storm. It came suddenly, but didn't last long.

“Because my cousin slept on the job and they stole a small row boat some idiot left where they could find it.”

A quiet sigh echoed along the stone walls as the angered tension left Ladone's body entirely.

“Fine. Fine. Do we know where they are now?”

“We are doing our best, but we're jewellers, not trackers. They are somewhere to the west of here, but the only thing we can say for certain is that they haven't past Bareh.”

Bareh was a small fishing village in the south-west, populated mostly by the Khara, Pontos, Pisca and the occasional Najad. During the last few months it had also become a good place for the Galadi lin Puhnak to store some of their stolen goods there.

“If it's trackers you need, I can help,” Nyx spoke up.

The Ulrics had always been some of the better trackers. Some people said it was because of the coeurl blood in their veins, Nyx himself was of the opinion that it was because his Clan had hunted for a living since it had come to Galahd.

“Are you healed up enough for something like this?” Ladone asked him, hidden worry in her eyes.

“Got cleared just this morning,” he announced while internally scoffing. He was able to walk around even with an injured arm, thank you very much.

Ladone eyed him sceptically for a moment before she nodded. Nyx couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief. Sometimes this woman felt like she was his macri. To this day he hadn't gotten out of her, if she had been his father's hunting-sister or not. Privately he had always thought she must have been with the way she sometimes acted towards him and his sister.

“Lumo varistos,” said Luche with a nod towards him.

Nyx nearly rolled his eyes as he returned the nod. Why were the westerners always so posh?

“I need to get some things. Meet me at the bar in two hours,” he instructed and turned to leave.

Which was when Axis burst through the loose crowd, gasping for breath and sweaty. It looked like he had run the whole way through the tunnels from the bar.

“Runner... from Bareh. Attack!” he gasped, trying to get much needed air into his lungs.

For a heartbeat the only thing that moved was the fire they stood next to. No one seemed to even breathe.

Then everybody moved at once.

Ladone practically hurled herself over the fire to pepper the Arra teenager with questions and two members of the Altius Clan that were in attendance, hurried to their improvised med bay, while a third asked where the runner was and if he was injured. Nyx, along with most of the others, hurried into an adjacent cave where his repaired armour and a set of his weapons were stored.

“Okay people, listen up! The attack started an hour ago, and when the runner was sent out the Niffs were still fighting their way across the River Sea. Should they have managed to come across, we're going to hit them from the side and we're going to hit them hard. Otherwise we help get any non-combatants out and leave the fighting on the water to those that know what they're doing. Anyone who knows how to fight on boats will follow me. Now move! Clock is ticking!”

With those words Ladone jumped down from the crate she stood on and jogged deeper into the mine where the tunnels were.

They made their way in grim silence, single file because the tunnels weren't wide enough for two people to walk next to each other. The tunnel spat them out in a ring of ancient trees. In their middle was a patch of earth untouched by their roots, which was where the exit was located.

Nyx pulled himself up and out and then turned around to help Libertus and Crowe who came after him.

Bareh wasn't far now, just a short travel through the jungle.

However, the moment Nyx had climbed out of the tunnel his hair stood on end. The jungle around him was dead silent other than the noises his fellow Galahkari made, and the air was charged with something he could not name. Wind billowed through the trees and brought the smell of sea salt, greenery and the biting odour of a large fire.

“Fuck it all to Pitioss and back,” Libertus cursed next to him.

Grim faced, Ladone waved for them to follow her through the trees. The closer they got to the small fishing village the deeper sunk the realization that they might have come too late. It made Nyx queasy to think about it. How many had died already? Were the children okay? Had the Niffs made it across the River Sea?

The jungle gave way to the beach and at once Nyx was assaulted by the roar of the fire that had engulfed a large part of Bareh already. People ran and screamed amongst the flickering shadows and from across the water gunshots echoed, paired with the screech of machinery and the cries of the dying.

A Niff ship had docked on this side of the River Sea, a second one close to joining it, and without thinking about what he was doing or the possible repercussions, Nyx ran to the shore.

“Damn it, Nyx! Stop!” Libertus called behind him, but he ignored it.

Even from nearly fifty metres away the fire's heat bit into his skin and the smoke made his eyes water. He blinked rapidly a few times and jumped on the back of the nearest MT ambling its way up the shore. With an animalistic growl he slammed his kukri into the thing's neck hard enough to nearly behead it. None of those things would reach the village. Over his dead body.

Then he was upon the next one, ducking under a wide swipe that left the MT wide open and killed it in two strikes, one to the armpit and the other to the throat. The heavy metal body slumped over him and a hail of bullets rained into its back.

Over the roar of the battle he heard a child scream. A few metres up the shore, where sand made way for earth, a small figure stood, barely a teenager. Against the glow of the fire Nyx couldn't see many details, but he saw the short sword in the kid's trembling hand and the MT with the two serrated swords stepping close, looming like a daemon.

Nyx ran.

A bullet whizzed by his ear. He ducked his head but kept running. Keeping as close to the ground as he could, he used his momentum and tackled the thing as hard as he could. It lost its footing in the sand and fell to the side. One of its blades nicked his armour but did no damage otherwise.

A jolt went through his body when he hit the ground, half on top of the thing that had nearly murdered a child.

“Run!” he screamed.

He could not turn around to see if the kid did as they were told, too busy with rolling out of the way of a flailing sword. From the corner of his eyes Nyx thought he saw Libertus running with the kid slung over his shoulder. All the while the kid never stopped screaming.

Nyx spat out a mouthful of sand and blindly swiped a kukri in the MT's direction. Metal hit metal without really doing anything. Something hit him hard in the side with enough force for him to land on his back.

For a too long second he lay there, gasping for breath, and watched as an arrow flew over his head. It hit the MT with the serrated swords in the face. The red light of its left eye flickered and sputtered out while it swayed dangerously far to the left.

With a breathless snarl Nyx struggled to his feet, taking the opportunity to cut into the softer material at the back of its knee. A rattling shudder went through that proximity of a human body, as it tumbled to the ground again.

Sparks flew when another arrow hit it in the shoulder and Nyx killed it when he dug his blade into the small of its back where the spine should be.

He looked up and saw an old woman with long white hair and a burning gaze stand on the roof of a nearby boat shed, bow in hand and a bucket full of arrows at her feet. Despite her age her movements were fluid and sure as she notched another arrow and let it fly.

Unbidden Nyx found his gaze following its trail through the air and behind him, where it hit an obviously human officer who had been in the process of climbing out of the second Niff boat that had made it to shore.

Then there was no time anymore for standing around as another three MT slowly made their way up to him. This was the exact moment a group of four men came stumbled out of the jungle. Nyx had barely enough time to wonder about their strange choices of attire, before the first MT was upon him.

For the next few minutes there was nothing but fighting. Smoke burned in his eyes and in his lungs, sweat pooled in the small of his back and made the grip of his blades slippery. Sand was everywhere. In his hair, in his boots and under his armour. It itched and chafed, but Nyx did his best to ignore it like he did with the burn in his muscles.

When Nyx had the next opportunity to take a short breather, he noticed that only two of the strangely dressed men were still near him. The other two were nowhere to be seen. Further along the beach a group of bowmen and those who were in possession of a firearm, took shots on anything that came too close to the shore and wasn't a Galahkar. A third of their original group had followed Ladone to the boats and had joined the fighting on the water. The others must have gone to round up the non-combatants that hadn't already fled into the jungle.

That was when he heard it. A high pitched whine that steadily grew louder and louder. His blood turned to ice and dread washed over him like a tidal wave. Nyx had heard that sound once before. And he would never forget it. He ran as fast as he could towards the two fighters near him that hadn't seemed to notice.

“Get down!” he screamed as loud as he could. “Down!”

One of the men turned around and Nyx had just enough time to see black hair and startled green eyes before he slammed into both and knocked them into the sand. He heard a startled yelp and a furious grunt as he landed on top of them.

Then the world exploded with a deafening bang and searing heat, as the ground buckled and earth rained down on them.

His ears rang. And for a heart stopping moment he couldn't even hear his own breathing. He groaned and it sounded like somebody had stuffed his ears with cotton. Chunks of earth and wooden splinters rained out of his hair when he turned his head and tried to blink the sand out of his eyes.

Beneath him the ground moved and gave a groan of its own. Nyx did not want to move. Everything hurt. The ground gave one big jolt and two pairs of hands carefully rolled him onto his side.

Somebody said something, concern clear in their voice. Another voice, also male but deeper and less concerned. Nyx opened his mouth to ask them to make some sense, but instead he started to cough and spit out the dirt accumulated in his mouth and nose during the explosion.

He blinked again and his swimming vision gained some clarity. Two faces came to focus as he struggled to sit up. Both had longish hair, one black and one brown. Neither of them looked Galahdian. It took Nyx' sluggish brain an embarrassing long time to connect the dots.

In front of sat a Lucis Caelum with who was probably his Amicitia.

Fuck.

Had he really just let himself be nearly blown to pieces to help a fucking  _ Lucis Caelum _ ?

“Are you quite alright?” the Lucis Caelum asked in that posh Lucian of his, concern edging his face.

If Nyx had been able to, he would have either laughed hysterically or spit at the man's feet. But alas, he was still too busy spitting sand out of his mouth. Libertus had been right. Fuck it all to Pitioss and back.

“Does he look like he's alright, Regis?” the probably-Amicitia scolded before he looked back at him. “Can you stand up?”

He scrambled for the right Lucian words. He hadn't had any use of the language since he had left school.

“Probably,” he managed to say.

Looking around, he found both his weapons just out of arm's reach, half buried in loose earth and sand. Nyx crawled over to grab them and, ignoring the two men tensing up and his protesting muscles, stood up.

Around them was chaos. The blast of the explosion had put out a large part of the fire, but what of Bareh hadn't already been burning had been turned into a crater and piles of rubble. His gaze wandered towards the boat shed. It had collapsed in on itself and the old woman was nowhere to be seen.

Grief welled up inside him.

Grief and rage.

This wasn't fair.

Why did Niflheim want to conquer their nation? As far as the Niffs should know there was nothing here for them to gain.

Nyx could barely breathe from the smoke and heat permeating the air. It stank horribly of burning wood and hot metal, the smell overpowering any other. He tore his eyes from what had once been a lively fishing village and turned towards the shore, making sure he kept the Lucis Caelum and his companion in his line of sight.

What he saw wasn't what he had expected.

The Niffs were retreating. The River Sea had been dyed a sickly reddish black upon which the firelight reflected in an eerie sheen, even in the middle of the day. Thick clouds of smoke drenched everything in a flickering twilight.

Nyx watched as a third of the boats his people had sent out did not return. He could feel his hands start to shake and bile rise in his throat.

“Nyx! Nyx, where are you!”

He could hear the call coming from the other side of what had been Bareh.

“I'm here!” he called back and turned his back towards the shore.

The two Lucians tensed when he raised his voice, though they most likely couldn't understand what he had just said. Not that he really cared about that at the moment.

A figure started to pick its way along the edge of the ruined village and Nyx needed a moment to recognize Crowe under the thick layer of soot and earth covering her from head to toe. The whites of her eyes practically glowed in contrast.

“Sea serpents take you. I thought the explosion had gotten you! Don't you worry me like that ever again,” she said and pulled him into a bone crushing hug.

His side and barely healed arm twinged in pain but he ignored it, sheathed his blades and hugged her back just as tightly.

“I'm glad you're alright,” he muttered into her dirty hair. It smelled like fire and smoke. Just like everything else. “Have you seen Libs?”

“He's a bit deeper into the jungle with a group of kids he managed to get out before the Niffs decided to throw a fucking bomb at us. Wanted to go looking for you first thing, but I convinced him to stay with the kids in case one of those tin cans made it through.”

She loosened the hug and stepped away from him. Which was when she first realized they weren't alone. She tensed like a bowstring at the sight of the Lucians. The Lucis Caelum wore an expression of placid blandness that was entirely out of place in their surroundings. The probably-Amicitia's face was as dark as a thundercloud minutes before a storm.

Nyx was just starting to wonder what he should do with those two when Luche came up the beach. The blond was caked in wet sand and the lower parts of his sturdy trousers were sopping wet. His face could have been carved out of stone.

“Namakar Najad wants everyone to gather where makar Ostium has gathered the surviving villagers,” he said without preamble once he was close enough.

“What should we do with them?” Crowe wanted to know with a jerk of her head towards the two Lucians.

Said Lucians shared a glance that Nyx couldn't decipher, then the Lucis Caelum stepped forward, his bearing a perfect picture of Lucian politeness.

“Good hunter, may I inquire if you have seen two of my companions? I would imagine they stand out just as much as we do,” the man addressed the Lazarus, which rude, but the Lucians wouldn't know that.

Nyx took a few seconds to fully puzzle out what had been said and Crowe looked at him questioningly. Out of their group she was the worst at the Lucian language, never having had much of a formal schooling. He turned towards Luche who looked back at him.

“Their companions are with Namakar Najad,” the blond answered the unasked question.

“Then they're coming with us,” Nyx decided and switched to his heavily accented Lucian to tell them just that.

Luche would most likely have had an easier time talking to them. Everyone in the Lazarus Clan grew up more or less bilingual in Hadnissa and Tenebrani and had to be fluent in Lucian to become a watcher. But in this situation Luche deferred to him and Nyx knew it was important that the Lucians knew at least some of their social structure, before heads started to roll.

“You have my thanks, good hunter,” the Father King said with a royal tilt to his head.

Nyx kept his face carefully blank as he nodded and turned around to lead the way. Oh, how much he wished Libertus was here to watch his back right now. Crowe walked next to him since she actually knew where they were going and Luche kept an eye on the Lucians.

The group walked in a tense silence for a few minutes before they reached a small clearing where an ancient stone ruin, their ancestors had abandoned for one reason or other, sat. Libertus leaned against a moss and vein covered wall, close to a crag that led further inside.

His hunting-brother grinned in relief but did not move from his post. Nyx grinned back as they walked past. They would talk later.

Inside the ruins were nothing more than walls of different heights and a few open spaces where rooms used to be.

Ladone and most of the largely uninjured fighters were in one of the bigger rooms. Her arm was in an improvised sling and an ugly bruise had begun to form on her right cheekbone. She stood in front of two more Lucians in the corner to the right of the entrance. One had dark skin and seemed to try to calm the other one down, who looked like a specially disgruntled cat. Both of them loosened some of their tension as they saw the Lucis Caelum and his companion enter.

“Your Majesty,” the dark skinned one said full of worry.

“Don't worry, I am well. Thanks to the timely intervention of this brave hunter here,” the Lucian King said and motioned towards Nyx.

All eyes turned to him and he had to suppress the urge to fidget in a sudden bout of nervousness. Ladone's flint stone gaze settled on him, decidedly unimpressed.

“What did you do?” she demanded in Hadnissa.

“We were close to Bareh when the bomb hit. I heard it before the impact and tackled the Lucis Caelum and his companion to the ground. I didn't know who they were until afterwards,” Nyx defended himself.

The Lucians perked up when they heard their King's family name.

Ladone scrutinized him for a few heartbeats longer, obviously searching for injuries. Finding no visible ones, she nodded and turned her full attention back to the four outsiders. Mutterings broke out between the other people present.

“Who are you?” she demanded, her Lucian heavy with the rolling accent Galahkari tended to have.

The probably-Amicitia and the disgruntled cat bristled at the – in their perspective – rudely worded question. The Lucis Caelum's mouth twisted in brief displeasure before his expression smoothed out again. Then the dark skinned man took half a step forward.

“I apologize for our rudeness,” he said and Nyx wasn't the only one who nearly snorted at that one. “May I introduce to you His Royal Majesty Regis Lucis Caelum, the Father, King of Lucis. To his left is his Lord Shield, his Grace Clarus Amicitia, Duke of Tealpar. My name is Lord Weskham Armaugh, Chamberlain to his royal Majesty. To my left is Marshall Cor Leonis, the Immortal, Paladin of the Crystal. With whom do we have the pleasure of speaking?”

Disgruntled Cat, who was actually Cor Leonis – and wasn't that a doozy? - frowned even harder as he got caught in a stare down with Radis Arra. Ahtrii, Nyx hoped the man wouldn't do anything stupid, like provoking one of the best fighters Lucis had had in generations.

“I am named Ladone of Clan Najad, Huntress of the Resistance and head of this branch,” Ladone spoke up, returning all attention back to her. “The brave hunter you refer to is named Nyx, Head of Clan Ulric, Hunter of Galahd and Blood of the Coeurl.”

Nyx blinked in surprise. Because, really? She had to bring up that stupid nickname he had gotten after his First Hunt? He had honestly no idea how that would benefit them in this situation. The Lucians however looked at him with a newfound consideration he didn't know what to do with.

“Clan Ulric, you say?” the Father King asked.

“Yes. Majesty,” Nyx bristled defensively.

If the man brought up any of his ancestors, he would need to leave the ruin before he did something very stupid. The King seemed mildly surprised at his defensiveness, while the Shield semi-glared at him for the slight.

Nyx felt Crowe shift at his back and the tense muscles in his shoulders relaxed marginally. Crowe was like her namesake. She would ruthlessly attack anyone she perceived to be harmful towards her and those she considered her own.

“Why did you come to Galahd, Majesty?” Ladone steered the conversation away from him.

He could have gifted her a bead, he was so pathetically grateful about it.

“There has been growing evidence that General Glauca is on his way towards Galahd. The man has been responsible for a great many of my kingdom's losses, Huntress Najad. If Galahd were to fall, the consequences would be fatal.”

Somehow Ladone managed to look neutral, attentive and unimpressed all at the same time. “We will do what we always have with mainlanders: We stand, we fight, and we refuse to bow.”

The words were a promise as much as they were a warning. Surprising all of them, the Lucian King nodded.

“Of course, Huntress,” he simply said.

“Huh, seems like the guy actually has a brain,” somebody whispered behind him and Nyx couldn't help but silently agree.

“I have to admit, it has been rather hard to find a settlement, or people at all, until we stumbled upon the battle on the beach. It is fortunate that we were able to help and I am sorry for the losses you had to suffer,” the King said, his green eyes attentive and sharp.

“Thank you for your intervention, Marshall Leonis,” Ladone replied with a nod towards the youngest of the Lucians.

The Marshall frowned in surprise but after a quick glance towards the Lucis Caelum he nodded wordlessly. The other Lucians didn't seem any less surprised. Didn't they thank the people who helped them directly? This just affirmed Nyx' notion even more that mainlanders were weird. Shuffling sounded behind him and Libertus entered, his eyes at once trained towards the Lucians in suspicion.

“The last stragglers are here and the injured and dead are readied for transportation, Namakar Najad. A group agreed to stay back and search the River Sea for the people still missing,” his hunting-brother reported without bothering to switch into Lucian.

Ladone nodded. “Good. As soon as the injured are ready we'll make our way back. Radis, go get them everything they might need. You'll be in charge of them along with whichever Altius is over there.” Radis looked decidedly unhappy, but he nodded nonetheless and walked out of the room. “I'll head the vanguard. Iase, you'll take the rear. Nyx, you and your siblings will follow me and have an eye on our visitors. If they make one wrong move, tell me and I'll deal with them.”

Nyx wasn't happy about this, at all, but still he yielded to her will. She may not be a Clan Head, but she was a huntress, a leader of the Galadi lin Puhnak and had seniority over him. Neither Libertus nor Crowe looked overly happy about this development either, but nodded also.

“Clan Head Ulric will guide you to our – where we are staying. Then we can continue our talk,” Ladone informed the Lucians whose expressions ranged from mildly put out to irritated.

Still, the King nodded and that was that.

  
  


_ Suffocating Darkness _

This was so awkward it made Nyx' skin crawl. Even beneath the layers of soot and earth she hadn't had the opportunity to wash off until now, Crowe looked uncomfortable and close to snapping at somebody. Libertus hadn't stepped further than three steps away from Nyx ever since they had started the way back towards the mines, in a mirror image of the Amicitia's own protectiveness, which irritated his hunting-brother even more.

None of them said a word as they walked among the vanguard, through the jungle towards the entrance of one of the wider tunnels. It was slow going with the train of the injured and the dead on the improvised stretchers following them.

They wound their way around tall and ancient trees, here and there Nyx could see traces of old resting places that had been abandoned over the years. The Lucian King and his comrades looked around them in interest, even if the Marshall mostly glowered at the Galahkari around him. Most of them either glowered right back, ignored him or tried to sneak curious glances at the group without them noticing.

A quiet nervousness travelled through the Lucians as the emerald twilight of the jungle surrounding them, slowly turned darker as the sun started to near the horizon. The Amicitia whispered something to his King, who made a placating gesture. Dimly, Nyx wondered what that was about.

“I don't like this,” hissed Libertus next to him as they passed a hunter's trail that Nyx himself had taken many times.

“Me neither, big guy. But they're here and it's better to keep an eye on them than let them run around to do as they like,” he muttered back.

“Why can't the Bellum or the Najad do it? Or Pitioss, even the Khara. It was the Bellum who turned the Wanderer King away when he tried to set foot onto Galahd,” Crowe wanted to know.

“Yes well, Sonitus can't fight with a broken hand, now can he?” Nyx replied.

“He's not the only Bellum around,” Crowe countered and Nyx shrugged.

How should he know what Ladone was thinking? That woman had always had strange ideas, but they had turned out to be correct most of the time, so he had learned not to question her overly much.

“I wonder why he was so interested in you being an Ulric,” his storm-sister spoke up after a few seconds.

“He was  _ what _ ?” Libertus demanded, earning himself a curious glance from the dark skinned Lucian.

“Wow, keep it down, big guy. It wasn't anything serious,” Nyx said defensively and at the same time wondered why he had bothered to say that.

“No. No, don't. Don't defend that astralnoheliokar, Nyx. Not after what his line did to yours,” Libertus practically growled.

“I know damn well what his line did to mine, Libertus. If he weren't an outsider there would have been a Clan feud declared a long, long time ago. But he isn't. So we at least have to attempt to be civil with each other, and I won't be the one goaded into fighting against him. No matter how tempting that would be.”

His hunting-brother huffed in irritation but didn't say anything else, for which Nyx was very grateful. He didn't need to have an argument with him now. Not right after a battle and his side throbbing in pain. Damn, there must be a big ass bruise already. He felt Crowe squeeze his shoulder and threw her a grateful smile.

Suddenly the earth gave a faint tremble and everybody came to a stop. This couldn't have been an ordinary earthquake. Galahd didn't get earthquakes. That ahtrii damned stone giant of an Astral was stuck in Duscae.

Nyx shared a look with Libertus and Crowe. He had a very bad feeling about this.

“I'll go to the front and see if somebody knows anything,” he said to the other two.

Both looked like they wanted to argue, but nodded.

“You stay. I go look,” Nyx told the Lucians and internally winced. He really should have paid more attention in school.

He didn't really wait for an answer, instead he turned around and started to trek towards where he thought Ladone to be. Behind him he could hear someone following him. It was the Marshall who dared him to say anything with an icy glare. Nyx just turned around and rolled his eyes. Should the man follow him, if he wanted.

They found the Najad woman standing on the lower branch of a tall tree, staring into the distance. The people on the ground muttered nervously.

“You see anything?” he called up to her.

She looked down, a dark frown on her face and shook her head.

“I couldn't see anything unusual,” she said once she had climbed back down, which didn’t take much longer than usual despite her injured arm. “But I can't help but feel something's off. The air feels like it's about to claw itself under my skin.”

“I could take a small group and go scouting,” Nyx offered.

So he wasn’t the only one feeling like that.

They were still debating it when a slight rustle in the undergrowth made them reach for their weapons. The Marshall, taking his cues from them, did the same.

A few seconds of tense waiting later a figure stumbled out between two bushes and Nyx' heart stopped. It was Selena.

“Nyx!” she called as soon as she saw him.

Her clothes were crumpled and torn in places and her face was red with exertion. She must have run all the way to find them.

“Nyx! Safe mother!”

From one moment to the other his mouth went dry. Their mother? Had something happened? A strange humming filled the air, grinding in his ears until he felt a pulsing headache forming within seconds. Without thinking he started running towards her.

He wasn't really able to see the hulking form practically flying towards his sister. There was only the humming, growing louder and louder, and a dim glow before it happened.

“Selena, get down!” he screamed.

But was was too late.

Cutting the air with a painful shriek, a huge sword came down. Nyx could feel the hot spray of blood splattering across his face, could feel the dead weight of a still warm body fall into his arms, could see sightless eyes staring up at him.

Someone screamed. It was a sound full of desperation and loss and pain. Nyx wanted the person to stop, to stop screaming so that he could concentrate on helping his sister. She clearly needed help.

Why wasn't anybody helping?

His throat was raw and when a deep breath rattled his lungs the screaming stopped. Nyx wrenched his eyes from his sister's face, frozen in surprise, and found himself staring up at a nightmare clad in armour. It looked like something twisted into a vaguely humanoid shape, bulking and intimidating as its dull glow pulsed like a heartbeat.

Nyx could feel nothing but bone rattling terror as he stared up at a draconian helmet.

The thing stared down dispassionately at him and his sister and raised its sword, each movement a whirring hum.

He knew the path the sword would take with startling clarity and still he couldn't move, rooted to the earth by grief and fear and the crushing certainty that he would die.

The sword came down.

Nyx closed his eyes and hunched over his sister's body as if to protect her.

A crystal tingling filled the air around him, followed by the harsh clang of metal against metal. He looked up and found the air had gained a glittering blueish tint. A series of weapons held the massive sword about to kill him, at bay.

What...?

A screeching bolt of lighting flew past him and hit the armoured figure square in the chest. It flew backwards into the next tree, it's wood splintering. Suddenly the Lucian King was there, his eyes a green fire, back straight and limb gone as he planted himself in front of Nyx, the Amicitia right next to him.

Someone grabbed his shoulder and he whirled around. It was Libertus, face pale and eyes grim. He tugged Selena's – Selena out of his arm and slung her over his shoulders while Crowe screamed at him to get up.

“Get up! Nyx, come on, we need to go! Nyx!”

A sharp pain stung his cheek. Crowe had just slapped him. She pulled at him again and this time his numb legs moved. He stumbled but his storm-sister kept her iron grip and dragged him after her as they followed the people fleeing deeper into the jungle.

*

Nyx stared blankly into the fire. Their group had stopped at a natural clearing to rest for the night. People argued around him, but he didn't care to listen to what was being said. All his thoughts were focused on Selena.

Selena, his bright and lively little sister. Who loved to tease him, who had had such a bright future ahead of her. Why did she have to die?

Both his remaining siblings sat pressed close to him without saying a word. Nyx could feel them shift as another figure stepped close to the fire. He looked up. It was the Lucian King.

The King he now owed his life to.

So he forced himself to listen as the man opened his mouth to speak: “I have a proposal to make for anyone who is willing to fight. I cannot give you back those you lost, but I can give you the means to keep those who remain, alive. Join the war. Join Lucis in her fight against Niflheim. Join the Kingsglaive and I can give you a chance to fight back against those who wish to take everything you hold dear.”


End file.
